THE WAY WE GET BY. BY NEIL LaBUTE DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE INC.

Transcription

1 THE WAY WE GET BY BY NEIL LaBUTE DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE INC.

2 THE WAY WE GET BY Copyright 2016, Neil LaBute All Rights Reserved CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that performance of THE WAY WE GET BY is subject to payment of a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and of all countries covered by the International Copyright Union (including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth), and of all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention, the Universal Copyright Convention, the Berne Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including without limitation professional/amateur stage rights, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound recording, all other forms of mechanical, electronic and digital reproduction, transmission and distribution, such as CD, DVD, the Internet, private and file-sharing networks, information storage and retrieval systems, photocopying, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed upon the matter of readings, permission for which must be secured from the Author s agent in writing. The English language stock and amateur stage performance rights in the United States, its territories, possessions and Canada for THE WAY WE GET BY are controlled exclusively by DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC., 440 Park Avenue South, New York, NY No professional or nonprofessional performance of the Play may be given without obtaining in advance the written permission of DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC., and paying the requisite fee. Inquiries concerning all other rights should be addressed to The Gersh Agency, 41 Madison Avenue, 33rd Floor, New York, NY Attn: Joyce Ketay. SPECIAL NOTE Anyone receiving permission to produce THE WAY WE GET BY is required to give credit to the Author as sole and exclusive Author of the Play on the title page of all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all instances in which the title of the Play appears, including printed or digital materials for advertising, publicizing or otherwise exploiting the Play and/or a production thereof. Please see your production license for font size and typeface requirements. Be advised that there may be additional credits required in all programs and promotional material. Such language will be listed under the Additional Billing section of production licenses. It is the licensee s responsibility to ensure any and all required billing is included in the requisite places, per the terms of the license. SPECIAL NOTE ON SONGS AND RECORDINGS Dramatists Play Service, Inc. neither holds the rights to nor grants permission to use any songs or recordings mentioned in the Play. Permission for performances of copyrighted songs, arrangements or recordings mentioned in this Play is not included in our license agreement. The permission of the copyright owner(s) must be obtained for any such use. For any songs and/or recordings mentioned in the Play, other songs, arrangements, or recordings may be substituted provided permission from the copyright owner(s) of such songs, arrangements or recordings is obtained; or songs, arrangements or recordings in the public domain may be substituted. 2

3 THE WAY WE GET BY was originally produced by Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director), New York City, on April 28, It was directed by Leigh Silverman, the scenic design was by Neil Patel, the costume design was by Emily Rebholz, the lighting design was by Matt Frey, the sound design was by Bart Fasbender, the production stage manager was David H. Lurie, and the stage manager was Amanda Kosack. The cast was as follows: BETH... Amanda Seyfried DOUG... Thomas Sadoski 3

4 CHARACTERS BETH DOUG A slash ( / ) indicates where the present speaker stops and the next speaker begins. 4

5 It is never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot We were together. I forget the rest. I give her all my love, that s all I do. Walt Whitman The Beatles

6 THE WAY WE GET BY The beginning. An apartment in New York. A nice one. Someone has been living here for a while now and things are piled up in that way that they get when you re starting to run out of places to put stuff. It all looks good and is very ordered, but it s feeling a bit crowded in the corners. The windows are dark. Nighttime out. The sound of light traffic. After a moment, a guy wanders on in his underwear and a sweatshirt. He s nice-looking in his own way. Pretty fit but doesn t seem to care about it much. This is Doug. He wanders over to the fridge and opens the door. Looks inside. Grabs a bottle of water and opens it. Chugs two or three good gulps out of it and then carries it back into the living area. He plops down onto a couch and spreads out. Feet up on the coffee table. Picks up a book and opens it. Reads a line or two, makes a face, tosses it back onto a stack. He grabs a remote and turns on the TV. The sound of it blasts on loudly. It s on the QVC channel and someone is selling purses or clothes or some damn thing. Doug quickly turns it off and puts down the controller. He glances over his shoulder at the hallway. Waits. After another beat, he seems to relax and picks up one more book. 7

7 Cracks it open and starts to read. He finds something funny and laughs out loud. Doug reaches over, snaps on a lamp and sits back to do a bit more reading. Takes another sip of water. A young woman appears in the hallway. Looking out. She wears a Star Wars t-shirt but otherwise seems pretty naked. This is Beth. Doug smiles again at something in the book. Laughs out loud. Beth keeps watching him. BETH. Not great to wake up alone. (Doug snaps his head around and jumps up. Drops the book on the couch and looks over at Beth.) DOUG. Hey. Sorry about that. BETH. Yeah, no, it s okay. Just weird. DOUG. I know. Right. That s not BETH. I thought maybe you left or something. DOUG. No! (Beat.) Of course not no. BETH. I mean, I see that now but at the time I was just, like a few seconds ago I m saying I got all freaked out / Not superfreaked, but you know ish. Freakish. DOUG. I understand. / I get it. BETH. Okay. Good. DOUG. But that s (He gestures.) BETH. Sorry? DOUG. No, nothing I just I mean, you have my shirt on there so (Beth looks down. Stretches out the logo to read it.) BETH. Oh. DOUG. Yeah. I wouldn t leave without that! It s vintage It s not, like, from Target or something. I got it at Comic Con. (Beat.) Kenny Baker? The little guy who played the robot? R2-D2? He signed it. (Points.) Right there. Above your yep. BETH. I m I didn t realize that. (He waves her off. Adjusts his underwear a little bit.) DOUG. No problem. You re welcome to wear it. (Beat.) But that should ve been a clue no way I m leaving without that! BETH. I just sorry, no I just grabbed the first thing I felt on 8

8 the floor and put it on. / Sorry. DOUG. That s fine / No, it s all good BETH. I wasn t suggesting you know. I don t even like Star Wars that much so I wouldn t steal it or anything! DOUG. Great. (Smiles.) I ll keep it then. BETH. Cool! DOUG. Uh-huh. (The two of them stand there in silence for a moment. Beth looking around, still waking up.) BETH. Did you turn on the TV or something? / Oh. I thought I heard the DOUG. Ummmmmm, no. Not the / Uh-uh. (Pointing toward a book.) I was just reading BETH. Huh. Okay. DOUG. Yep. (Beat.) Not reading but browsing (Beat.) TV s just sitting right over there on the shelf thingie. Unused. (Beat.) Yep. Console? Is that what they call it? Not a shelf thingie. Console, I think (Another moment of quiet. He holds out the water for Beth.) You want some? I woke up and I was, like, so thirsty so I just Hope it s alright. BETH. Sure. (Looking.) It doesn t say Kim on there, does it? DOUG. (Turning it over.) Nope. It s just Smart Water is all it says. (Shows her.) See? BETH. Okay, good. (Beat.) My roommate writes her name on everything she buys her food, I mean she basically buys the same stuff as me and then she whatever she gets pissed if I use any of it, even if it s mine. So I was just you know (Points.) Curious. DOUG. No, yeah, that makes sense. (Looks again.) This one appears to be yours. BETH. Good. DOUG. Sorry again I should ve asked. BETH. No, it s totally you know community property or whatever. / I m fine with it. DOUG. Thanks. / I would ve checked with you first but you were pretty zonked out. BETH. I understand. DOUG. That d be funny, though if she did. BETH. What? DOUG. Sorry I just mean, what you said a second ago about your roommate. BETH. Kim? 9

9 DOUG. Yeah. If she did put her name on all her stuff not just her food, I m saying but, like, the couch, or, or, or if she bought that rug there or something BETH. That actually is her rug DOUG. Oh. Course. (Doug looks at the rug for a moment, then around the rest of the apartment. Looks back at Beth, who says:) BETH. Yep. (Pointing.) That lamp there, too. And the coffee table. Shelves, as well. (Beat.) Pretty much everything you can see DOUG. Huh. BETH. (Looking around.) That vase is mine. DOUG. Nice! You have really good taste BETH. Actually, she bought it for me. / Kim. DOUG. Oh. / Wow. BETH. Yeah. I mean, it had flowers and stuff in it at the time for my birthday but yes, Kim picked it out. DOUG. I see. BETH. I think she got it so it d match the rest of her things, but that s just me DOUG. No, yeah, I bet you re right (He looks around.) Pretty good match, too! BETH. See? DOUG. No, I get it. (Beat.) Anyhow, that s what I mean. What if she went around and put her name on things, like in these huge letters everything that was hers? (Beat.) Like, with a stencil? (Doug mimes what he means, pretending to write out the name Kim in massive letters on the couch first and then the rug and a few other furnishings.) BETH. I wouldn t put it past her! (Doug stops and smiles at her. They look at each other.) DOUG. Sounds like it. (Beat.) Wouldn t that be crazy, though? If she did that? BETH. That d be funny. DOUG. Right? KIM. (Beat.) I wonder if anybody has ever done that in, like, the history of roommates? (Beat.) You think? BETH. Probably. DOUG. Yeah. No doubt. BETH. I know people have come up with a lot of wild stuff in those situations masking tape down the middle of rooms and, like, cutting things in half. / Seriously. DOUG. True. / Yeah. (Beat.) Probably not masking tape, though. BETH. Excuse me. 10

10 DOUG. Oh, nothing, no just I m saying it s probably not masking tape they use, in a case like that. (Beat.) Wouldn t stick so good BETH. No? DOUG. I don t think so. BETH. Oh. DOUG. Probably more like duct tape. BETH. Duck tape? DOUG. Yeah. Duct. With a t. / Duct. BETH. Oh. Okay. / Got it. Duct. DOUG. You know what that is the silver kind? BETH. I guess. DOUG. No, you ve seen it before. Now they have all kinds different colors, I m saying, or zebra stripes but it used to be just silver and it was for big jobs. Plumbing and that type of thing. Construction. Or packing boxes. (Beat.) You know? Silver BETH. I think so. Yeah. I ve seen it before I feel like we have some around here. The silvery kind. Or gray. Ish. Grayish. (Beat.) Right? (Doug shrugs and nods. Thinking about it for a moment.) DOUG. Yeah. Anyway, it was probably from all of the like wine or maybe the We did some whiskey, too, didn t we? I remember doing something Was it whiskey? BETH. What re you I m not sure what you mean now? DOUG. Oh, sorry! Yeah, I jump around a lot of the time my mind does that s a little bit of a problem with me these days. BETH. Oh. DOUG. It wasn t always when I was younger but it is now. Not a problem but a thing I do. / My brain does. Whatever. BETH. Huh. / I see. DOUG. Yep. (Beat.) I went back to the thing from before reason that you fell asleep last night so quick. (Beat.) After we (Beat.) You know (Beat.) Yeah. (Beat.) Yep. BETH. Got it. DOUG. Good. BETH. I see. DOUG. Yeah. That s what I meant. That you had a lot to drink no judgement, we both did and that s why you were sleeping that way before. So soundly. BETH. Maybe so DOUG. Anyway, you were asleep, you were really out of it and I 11

11 THE WAY WE GET BY by Neil LaBute 1M, 1W Meet Beth and Doug, two people who have no problems getting dates with their partners of choice. After a drunken party and a hot night, they wake up to a blurry morning where the rules of attraction, sex, and society are waiting for them before their first cup of coffee. It s very awkward and it also leads the pair to ponder how much they really know about each other, and how much they really care about what other people think. THE WAY WE GET BY is a play about love and lust and the whole damn thing. [LaBute] has done something unique to his brand of well-established playwriting genre; that is of the darkly cynical variety. THE WAY WE GET BY is a good play with an important conundrum (which I won t ruin for you), with a positive and hopeful ending, (that much I will ruin for you). It actually feels good in our ever wary world to see that problems, no matter how challenging, can be worked out and realized without the usual, Maybe I should have slit my wrists long ago, attitudes of characters with complex lives. After all, everything is complex these days. The Huffington Post sexy [LaBute] relishes the art of thwarting expectations. The New York Times One-night stands often produce repercussions, but few are as emotionally fraught as the one depicted in Neil LaBute s [THE WAY WE GET BY]. the playwright s gift for amusing banter is very much on display. The Hollywood Reporter [LaBute s] sometimes brutal wit has long been accompanied by an equally fierce moral curiosity if we see Doug and Beth s struggle in the context of a world where everyone can seem to be in everyone else s business especially when it s trivial the focus is on two individuals trying to assess their own capacity for courage. USA Today Also by Neil LaBute THE BREAK OF NOON reasons to be happy reasons to be pretty and others DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC.